Lots of Questions

Now that my wife Sara and I have been signed up with TD for a few weeks, input a few bills, and had the time to use the site and read through most of the forum posts, we had a few questions we would like to ask. Since we're both new to this (tracking bills), and it sounds like many of you have been tracking bills for years, we'd love to be able to tap into your wealth of knowledge.

First, I'd like to tell you a little about us. Both Sara and I work at Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix, AZ. She works as an assistant sky cap (that's where we're getting all the singles) and I work for US Airways (America West prior to the merger). One of the perks working for an airline is being able to fly for almost nothing, as long as there are empty seats on the flight.

That said, here's my first question: Is it within the rules, written or unwritten, to fly to various locations and spend and/or exchange a large amount of bills? Example: Exchange a few hundred singles at a bank in Anchorage, AK or a currency exchange in Calgary, AB, Canada?

Is it ok to exchange bills with another user? The obvious answer seems like it would be a "NO!", but Marcus has mentioned several times bills sent to him to help with costs would get a hit in TX.

I have no idea what it costs to run and maintain a server and website. I know the site is free to use, but we plan on using this a lot (and hopefully giving the top guys a run). As a regular user, what's a reasonable amount for a donation?

Most of the bills we've entered so far have been received at Sky Harbor, ZIP 85034 in Phoenix. Most of them have been entered on our home computer in Tempe, ZIP 85281. Does it matter in this case since I'm using both my home computer and a work computer to enter bills? Especially since both ZIPs are in Maricopa county?

If when I'm traveling and get new bills to enter, what ZIP should I use? Should I use my home ZIP and put a note where I got it, or use the ZIP where I got it? Does it make a difference if I enter the bill at or near where I got it?

Both Sara and I are having a ball with this. We're both highly competitive and are hoping to move up the points list, but it's far more important to us to do it fairly. We don't want to be conceived as The Baron.

In advance, thanks for the help. We look forward to talking with you in the future.

Tony and Sara.

Tony,

Your questions are excellant. I will weigh in, but Marcus is welcome to clarify.

k30grif wrote:Is it within the rules, written or unwritten, to fly to various locations and spend and/or exchange a large amount of bills? Example: Exchange a few hundred singles at a bank in Anchorage, AK or a currency exchange in Calgary, AB, Canada?

At this time, Marcus has no rule about this kind of exchange. Other currency tracking sites are focused on the "purity" of currency movement and have made hard-set rules to try to force this purity. Marcus seems to be much more focused on the enjoyment of his user community.

k30grif wrote:Is it ok to exchange bills with another user? The obvious answer seems like it would be a "NO!", but Marcus has mentioned several times bills sent to him to help with costs would get a hit in TX.

I have already sent some bills to Marcus. He very nicely hit all of them, eventhough I told him he didn't have to. If people wanted to trade bills with me, I would follow Marcus' current policy and supply at least one hit, I would also distribute bills to places that have been helpful in generating hits for me.

k30grif wrote:I have no idea what it costs to run and maintain a server and website. I know the site is free to use, but we plan on using this a lot (and hopefully giving the top guys a run). As a regular user, what's a reasonable amount for a donation?

Marcus could give you an exact quote if he wants to, but I am guessing it is over $ 30/month in simple server costs.

k30grif wrote:Most of the bills we've entered so far have been received at Sky Harbor, ZIP 85034 in Phoenix. Most of them have been entered on our home computer in Tempe, ZIP 85281. Does it matter in this case since I'm using both my home computer and a work computer to enter bills? Especially since both ZIPs are in Maricopa county?

I enter most of my bills at my home ZIP, but when I am at my office desk, I will use the ZIP here. They are both Fairfax County VA, but I have seen a different distribution depending on where I spend them.

k30grif wrote:If when I'm traveling and get new bills to enter, what ZIP should I use? Should I use my home ZIP and put a note where I got it, or use the ZIP where I got it? Does it make a difference if I enter the bill at or near where I got it?

I would always try to use my current ZIP of where I am. If I am planning a trip, I will stockpile bills from my home ZIP to take on my trip. As I am travelling, I spend my home ZIP money first. If I get cash while away, I will enter it in the ZIP where I am and try to spend it further along during my trip.

k30grif wrote:Both Sara and I are having a ball with this. We're both highly competitive and are hoping to move up the points list, but it's far more important to us to do it fairly. We don't want to be conceived as The Baron.

In advance, thanks for the help. We look forward to talking with you in the future.

Tony and Sara.

My wife enjoys spending my marked money She stays behind the scenes, but does enjoy the stories of how my bills have traveled.

We are planning a camping trip over Memorial Day weekend and a trip to a conference in Cleveland in mid-June. I am already looking forward to where my money will go.

Hi,

welcome to TrackDollar, and sorry you got "ADDICTED" like the rest of us.

yes, I try to have not too many rules on TrackDollar, however, we still try to track as good as possible the "normal" path of currency:

that means: do not go to a bank, get 1000 ones, mark them, and bring them back to a bank to get another 1000 ones !
do not hit your own bills from another computer.
Always use the ZIP code where you are at the time you enter it.

feel free to go to a bank, pick 1000 ones, mark them and spend them where you like :-)

I think thats pretty much it. You can trade bills with other TD user, however, the amount of bills you can hit on one user account is limited. The site will tell you when you go over the limit and not allow to save this bill. Still you can help this user by spending the bill in your area. if you are lucky enough to have an aiport job and you know the manager of a local fast food restaurant inside the airport, and they need change, go ahead. Your bills will spread from there all over the country and world. LUCKY I would LOVE to work at an airport.

For the Server cost: I upgraded the Server a bit to run faster, so for now I am renting a machine in a server park shared for $39.99 a month. If the server usage is increasing I will have to rent more memory. if TrackDollar finally picks up 10000 user I will have to rent my own machine and not a shareable machine. Also I need to signup for ZIP Code Database updates, what will be about $100 per year. So for now the server cost is about $600 a year and could go up to $2000 a year in future.

For the donation, I am not expecting that TD user pay a monthly fee or something. I have already a good job, I am not doing TrackDollar to become rich. However to recevie at least the cost would be nice, everybody can help by visiting the TrackDollar ads. TrackDollar gets payd by click on the link, you don't need to buy something from these businesses ads. TrackDollar received between 16 Cent and $1 per Click. Cash Donation, yes if you have an AD BLOCKER on your computer, and you still want to help, nice, I won't say NO. Mail whatever you think is okay. I will hit your bills until the user limit is reached.

User accounts:
I won't just delete any user account because of this or that rule. So don't worry. For "The Barron", entering 3000 bills in a wrong zip code and then use a proxy server to hide and enter 20 hits on these bills from the same computer into different zip codes. Well this is for sure not what we want, it will just mess up our database. I found out about that already 1st week of January and just checked for 8 more weeks to see what all she or he is doing

There is one rule more for the Forum that is, PG13 language, we have a few minors tracking bills (my 10 year old son is one of them).

Finally: yes it is all about fun here

Markus

Admin wrote:
that means: do not go to a bank, get 1000 ones, mark them, and bring them back to a bank to get another 1000 ones !
do not hit your own bills from another computer.
enter the zip code of the place where you received the bill.

Don't you mean always use the ZIP code where you are at the time you enter it? (I think that is what you mean)

Hi,

of course
"Always".

Remember, I am still the only GERMAN TrackDollar user. So bare with me, then and when I might talk kind of "FUNNY".

Markus